Payment services provider PayPal earlierAnnounceThe current CEO, Alex Chriss, has been removed from his post and replaced by Enrique Lores, the current CEO of HP and chairman of the board of PayPal, who will become the new CEO of PayPal.
PayPal, in its statement, bluntly stated the reason for the change: "The pace of change and execution did not meet the board's expectations." However, HP may be the hardest hit by this personnel upheaval, with rumors suggesting that the HP board was only informed at the last minute and was forced to urgently search for a successor.
PayPal's stock price plummeted, and Enrique Lores was appointed to lead the company in a crisis.
PayPal's decision reflects anxiety over the company's long-term poor performance. PayPal's stock price has plummeted 80% in the past five years, and after news broke that Enrique Lores would take over, it fell by more than 17% in pre-market trading.
Enrique Lores is the chairman of PayPal's board and the current CEO of HP, and he played a key role in evaluating internal and external candidates. It is unclear whether Enrique Lores exercised any business recusal when deciding to appoint himself as PayPal's new CEO, but it is certain that he will be leaving HP, where he has served for over 30 years.
HP was "ambushed" and urgently appointed an interim CEO.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Enrique Lores' sudden defection caught HP's board of directors "blindsided." Enrique Lores joined HP in 1989 as an engineering intern and rose through the ranks to become CEO, even spearheading the spin-off of HP Enterprise.
Due to the suddenness of the incident (it is said that the HP board of directors only learned of it in recent weeks), HP has had to urgently appoint director Bruce Broussard (former CEO of Humana, a US for-profit health insurance company) as interim CEO, and at the same time initiate a search process for a permanent CEO, with candidates reportedly already under consideration internally.
Board chairmen "going into business" to put out fires is becoming a trend.
Recently, it seems to be a trend among US-listed companies for the "Chairman of the Board" to personally take over the position of underperforming CEO. Besides PayPal, this includes:
• Verizon:Chairman Dan Schulman (interestingly, he is the former CEO of PayPal) will replace Hans Vestberg as CEO.
• UnitedHealthcare:Chairman Stephen Hemsley will succeed Andrew Witty.
• Kohl's:After the CEO resigned due to ethical controversies, Chairman Michael Bender took over.
Analysis of viewpoints
This personnel case is full of drama and risk.
First, while Enrique Lores is a legendary veteran of HP, he is, after all, a veteran with a background in "hardware" and "printing." Although he served as chairman of PayPal and has a certain understanding of company operations, the market is clearly skeptical about whether he can adapt to the fast pace and cutthroat competition of Silicon Valley's software industry by directly jumping in to lead a struggling FinTech company (as evidenced by the stock price reaction).
Secondly, this is undoubtedly a blow to HP. Losing a leader who has served for 30 years and understands the company culture best, especially under such circumstances, will inevitably impact HP's short-term decision-making stability.
This also reflects a current phenomenon in the business world: when the external environment is turbulent and performance pressure is immense, boards of directors are increasingly inclined to choose the "most familiar and safe option"—that is, their chairman stepping down to take the job himself, rather than risking poaching unknown star managers from outside.
